••••••••••Legend•••

Disclaimer: All information presented here is hearsay and rumor. The true origins of Nortega and his crew are muddled like a night viewed through a liter of scotch.

Born a noble savage of the Quapaw tribe in the 70’s, little is known about his childhood. Legends suggest his parents were high plains drifters and lived completely off the grid until a failed international jewel heist separated them.

While his parents planned their capers, young Nortega was left to his own devices and passed his time by creating flip books on the edges of stolen bearer bonds. When he was separated from his family during a fire fight, all he was left with his empty pistol and a stomach full of grit and determination.

At the age of 14 he directed his first animated commercial for The United Way and got to work with James Brown. This is where Nortega first learned to dance.

In the summer of ’93, Nortega rolled into Santa Fe, New Mexico. There his fate brought him in contact with Chuck Jones. Feeling a sense of hope that this scrappy young man could carry on the traditions of hand drawn animation, Chuck began training the young Nortega in the mystic arts of the American animators. This was a grueling period in Nortega’s life. Chuck pushed him harder in his training than any school would be legally allowed to. Turns out there is more behind the scenes violence in the real life of the animator than anything Tom & Jerry ever did on screen.

Nortega was sad to see Chuck pass away, but knows that his life was forever changed by the training he received. Nortega can shoot straighter, kick harder, and draw faster than most any man alive thanks mainly to Mr. Jones.

When Nortega left Santa Fe, he started the studio known to this day as Humouring the Fates. Taking the knowledge imparted to him from Chuck Jones he assembled an elite team of artists, animators, editors, and writers creating a traditional animation studio when everyone else was starting to go 3D.

The Fates studio flourished with great clients and good work, but something was missing. Nortega knew there was more to seek. He began a wanderlust quest to Japan. After one of his animators nearly broke the drawing arm of Yuuki Nobuteru during a late night battle ofJan-ken-pon, Nortega befriended a lifelong ally.

It was with this guidance of yet another animation master, Nortega was taken to Japan to learn how the animation studios there got things done. As the American studios were dying (Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, etc.) across the Pacific, hand animation was still in a renaissance. Plus the stories they told did not always require a cute singing animal. They told all sorts of stories with anime.

One day while in an Onsen, Nortega witnessed a throng of monks after attempting to oust three Yakuza elders simply for having tattoos. Nortega felt the injustice. He spoke with his fists, maybe because his Japanese isn’t as good as it is now. When the mayhem ended, the thankful Yakuza elders took him to meet the owner of a company that made the animation software used by 95% Asia. Nortega was grateful and became entrenched in the production methods of Japanese animation from that day onward.

Today, Humouring the Fates still thrives as a studio that marries the best of East and West with no compromises or ‘animation cheats’ to make the job easy. He is the captain of a crew that knows the pains and suffering of doing a job right, and will stop at nothing to see your project to completion.

To sum it all up:

Nortega has been kicked out of two film schools and had to fist-fight his way out of one Mexico City taxicab. He leads the crack animation team the Fates Crew and can potentially be made available to direct your animated project the right way.

The hard fought way.

The Nortega way.

Nortega is a director with nearly 20 years experience crafting the look and feel of animated media. This is his bliggity blog.